King of the Beasts
by DarthObsydian
Summary: "He could hear his mother banging on the door, screaming as she did before. The scene would play again he knew; the night of the massacre. And he also knew that the scene would continue to play until he gained control. Until all doubts were erased. Until the Force returned to him his power. Then his training could begin anew. Then he could live again." -Following the events of ROTJ


**King of the Beasts  
**

"Evil? What is that? ...You said you were death itself. Are you evil, then, or are you simply stronger and more awake than others? Who gives more shape to sentient history: the good, who adhere to the tried and true, or those who seek to rouse beings from their stupor and lead them to glory? A storm you are, but a much needed one, to wash away the old and complacent and prune the galaxy of deadweight."

-Plagueis (_Darth Plagueis_)

**4 years ABY**

"Young fool...only now, at the end, do you understand."

_I couldn't have said it better myself, Lord Sidious._

Lightening gathered in his finger tips and the power of the Force shot through the boy's skin, striking his marrow, and boiling his blood.

"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side."

"_It is high time you understood that very thing._

The Emperor gritted his teeth.

"You have paid the price for your lack of vision!"

_Not yet, but you will. In a matter of minutes, I suspect._

Palpatine paused, forcing the voice from his mind. He _would_ enjoy this moment.

"Now, young Skywalker… you will die."

_As will you, my _old_ apprentice._

He could feel the son of Skywalker's life coming to an end. Each cry of pain brought him closer to the edge of his destiny. The curtain was closing and his act was complete. It was almost time to take the bow.

After tonight he would transcend through history, through immortality, conqueror of life and death. He would take Skywalker's life. He would feed off of his strength. He, Palpatine, Darth Sidious, Ruler of the Galactic Empire, would reign eternal.

He would defy gravity. He would... no… he _was_ lifting, ascending, and-

_Screaming_.

-falling. How could he have been so blind! Vader had betrayed him- murdered him!

No! Palpatine opened his mind and clung to the last connection he had to his most loyal servant and let his voice call to her with all the power he still possessed.

"YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!"

He felt her receive his command, but before he could say more, he felt their connection sever and he was overcome with agony as his soul was snatched from his body, which he was forced to watch as it was destroyed.

Fear set in as Palpatine's vision went black and his spirit grew cold. Just before he was consumed completely by the Force a deep roll of thunder pierced through his consciousness and each word spoken dripped with ridicule.

_I'll see you soon._

When Palpatine awoke he was in a world of gray, of death… of snow.

Mygeeto!

He didn't have to see his reflection to know that the physical form he now possessed was one much younger than the one he had just been ripped from. He was younger- Seventeen to be exact.

This knowledge came from more than a sense of renewed physical strength, a more restless nature in his spirit, and, not to mention, a much smoother texture to his skin. No, he was certain because he knew that if there was anything his old master cherished, aside from his own power, was his superiority over others, as well as his love of symbolism.

"Compared to the temperate Muunilinst, Mygeeto is ruthless and uncompromising, but I learned to adapt to its harsh conditions, and before the age of eight I could venture out into the most violent storm dressed in less than you wear now."

"Plagueis," Palpatine hissed.

"But I haven't brought you here to acquaint you with my past, Sidious. If you were of a species acclimatized to these conditions, I would have brought you instead to a desert world."

"And if I were an aquatic being, you would have stranded me on dry land because the way of the Force is best practiced between distress and comfort, entropy and predictability. Yes, I remember your speech!" Palpatine was shivering, his lips were turning blue, and his limbs were becoming numb. "Don't come out here to tell me that my blood is close to frozen. I already know that. Don't come to tell me that with too much time here and I will die. I know I am already dead. Do not tell me I will think that the dark side will kill me. It already has. Just show yourself and tell me why! Why have you brought me here- or why are you forcing me to believe you have? Why have you decided to turn back the wheels of time? Why not just make me suffer?" Palpatine widened his stance. "Come out and face me like the Master you once were! Or does your fear still survive after death?"

"Cease with your elaborate challenge, Sidious," Plagueis said, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. "I am right here."

Palpatine whirled around to see Darth Plagueis standing behind him, for all paradoxical purposes, alive and well. Inwardly he scorned himself at his wild, unmannered behavior.

"It seems death has a way of tampering with one's control," the Muun said, the faintest look of satisfaction playing on his face.

Palpatine glowered at his old master. "Is this your way of extracting revenge? Letting me freeze to death for all eternity? Forcing me to climb that mountain until my soul withers away? You forget, Plagueis, I've grown much stronger than I was when we last parted."

"That may have been true, but, unfortunately for you, that is no longer the case."

Palpatine raised his chin. "Nevertheless, I destroyed you in life, and I have no qualms about doing so again, in death."

Plagueis let out a short laugh. "I am not here to avenge my murder, Sidious," he said, lowering his cowl to show his face, which was (as Palpatine had expected) exactly as it was the day the two had first crossed paths. "I am here to continue where we left off; rather, I am here so that we may try again- this time, successfully."

Suddenly, the cold was forgotten. "I'm sorry?"

"When alive, you secured clones for yourself in the event that your physical form was ever destroyed, did you not?"

"How did you-"

"I've been watching." Plagueis crossed his arms. "What if I were to tell you that I can help you send your soul back into the bodies of your clones, per your plan? What if I were to tell you that I can help you achieve immortality in more ways than dwelling inside the Force?"

Palpatine's eyes widened. "Is that so?"

"Yes. If, and I repeat, _if_ you are willing to do this all once more."

"I'm not sure I follow."

Plagueis began to pace as if he was losing interest, but Palpatine had the impression that the Muun had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. "It should be obvious to you by now, that something was done incorrectly. We missed a step somehow."

"I suppose that would contribute to our current predicament… Master."

Plagueis cut his eyes briefly to Sidious, but, the now young man could tell that he was pleased, nonetheless. "We should embrace this environment, this world, this... _gift_ of the Force. We should utilize every new option we have, and then, perhaps, we will fix what was broken from the start."

"I don't understand."

"Then I will explain," Plagueis said, coming to a halt. "Once, many years ago, we had a scene very much like this one. However, then I asked you to simply retell me the events of your tragedy over again and again until you gained control over it. I realize now that I was a fool. The only way to gain power over another is to defeat them. If you are still haunted by the memory afterwards, then you did not succeed."

Sidious nodded. "I suppose. What would you have me do?"

Plagueis smiled. "Kill them again."

"Dantius," said a gentle voice from behind him. Sidious whirled around to see his mother standing behind him, shivering, as she wore only a thin gown. He turned back to his Master, but the Muun was already gone.

_Let the games begin, I suppose._

"Dantius," his mother said again, her blue lips trembling. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, mother," Sidious said, tensing. "It's me."

Tears sprang to her eyes and she ran to him throwing her arms around his neck. Sidious summoned the force, ready to fling her into the far off mountain side, but much to his terror, the Force had rendered him powerless. Too shocked to react with his physical form, he stood there, arms slightly spread, whilst his mother- although, he was beginning to doubt this was_ exactly_ the woman he remembered- sobbed openly, her face buried in his neck.

"Who are you," Sidious whispered.

The woman froze and, slowly, pulled back to look up at him. Sidious recoiled, in spite of himself. He should have known this would be his master's aim. Lady Palpatine, biological mother of the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, was nothing more than a rotting, talking corpse.

"Don't you remember me," she said, and something, some light, left her eyes and in that moment he knew she was alive no more. Yet she still continued to speak, a slow, monotonous tone. "That Munn, Hego Damask, he told us about who you've become… about _what_ you've become. Darling, we are so very proud of you! Your father and I… we've always known you were different. We just didn't realize that that meant you were destined for such greatness, such power!"

"Desme'?"

Sidious's eyes widened. Even though he had entirely expected this to follow, he couldn't help but feel completely taken off guard. He raised the tips of his fingers and messaged his temples.

_If you have cut me off from the Force, what is the point of this reunion?_

"I'm right here, Cosinga," his mother said, her eyes never leaving her son's. Soon a much taller figure joined her at her side, his shadow looming over the both of them. "He's here, Cosinga! Just like the Magister said he would be… and he's changed too! He's not the same boy anymore, can't you tell it?"

The elder Palpatine looked down at his corpse bride with lifeless eyes of his own, and then slowly turned his gaze to the son who had left him in a pool of blood more than half a century before. "So he is."

"Father," Sidious found himself saying, his teeth grinding in a way that he had not done since he was, well, seventeen.

"The Magister said that you would be arriving soon, but I can't say that I'm any happier to see you now than when I first received that news."

"I see you haven't changed."

"Likewise, boy."

Desme' stepped forward and took her sons cold hands into her frigid ones. "Son, we have something to say to you. We were told that this would help you."

Sidious shifted and, suddenly, he was Sidious no longer. He could feel it in the deepest recesses of whatever substance now possessed this afterlife shell. No, now he was merely Palpatine- a seventeen year old delinquent who had renounced his birth name in an act of symbolic rebellion, who had a mother of no importance, drones for siblings, and a father who had grown to hate him in a way that should have been impossible to feel towards the child to whom you gave life.

The young Palpatine blinked and found himself on the Palpatine family starship and he needn't look at a chart to know they were traveling along the Hydian Way. They were all seated around him- his father, mother, sisters, brothers- in that same room, the same small communication's cabin where the famous massacre had began.

Desme' spoke first. "My son, I know how weak I must have seemed to you all these years." She cast a quick glance at her husband. "And I would like to believe that was the reason you hated me. Because you believed yourself above someone as pathetic as me."

Palpatine nodded, curtly.

_Alright, I'll play along._

"Yes, I suppose that's right."

"There were times, I believe, you even thought I didn't love you. Not like a mother _should_ love her son, in any case."

Once again, Palpatine nodded.

Desme' shifted, pained. Palpatine observed her cautiously; either she believed everything she was saying and death truly had changed her, or she had greatly increased her acting skills sense she met her demise.

"I suppose, I just want you to know that that was not always the case. When you were born, well…" Desme's paused and Palpatine's oldest sister took her hand. "I wanted nothing more than to protect you and to raise you up into a man that was worthy to be your father's heir. But, from the moment I first held you in my arms I knew that you were… different. _Dangerous_. It didn't take me very long to realize that I couldn't be a mother to you, even if I tried- you never would have let me."

Desme' started to cry again and Palpatine had to fight not to roll his eyes.

"There is something… devastating… about failing your own child. Your baby boy. I was helpless to help you. Helpless to step in. Helpless to save you. How could I, when I couldn't even save myself? Before I knew it I had lost myself. I had no opinions, no passions, and no _purpose_. I was forced to watch my boy grow to hate me and there was nothing… and then that day when we came to pick you up… and I heard the crash… I saw… smearing blood… and you… your eyes glowed! You possessed you were…"

Desme' cut off griping at her throat. Everyone turned to watch as she fought for air, dead eyes bulging as and her gray face turned red. Once whatever held her finally released its grip, she toppled out of her chair and collapsed on her knees. When she spoke again, her voice had lost all emphasis, all emotion- like the living dead.

"I loved you once, Dantius. I don't want to see you suffer- I never did. But I was weak." She stood. "And now so are you."

Palpatine felt dread inching up his spine.

_Plagueis… what is your plan?_

Next, his siblings rose in union and followed their mother out of the cabin. Loyal little ducks.

The fact that he was sitting alone with his father now, just as he had all those years ago, did not escape his attention, nor did the magnificent symbolism behind it. Palpatine was unsure where his master was at that moment, but he was certain that the puppet master was pleased.

And he was sure this game was nearing a close.

"I suppose," the younger Palpatine said, shifting in his seat. "That is your turn to deliver some grand, out of character, confessional."

"That is the plan."

Palpatine nodded. "So here we go."

"Son, the truth of the matter is- I hate you. Death hasn't changed that. From the moment you were born I knew you would turn out like you did. A monster." Cosinga leveled his gaze. "But it didn't have to be that way."

Palpatine raised a brow.

"Did you know that the day we discovered that your mother was pregnant was the second happiest day of my life? When we found out it was a boy… the first." Cosinga steepled his fingers. "I'm not a man of many emotion's , so believe that I mean it when I say I loved you more than you could ever know before I even saw your face. And had you not loathed me from the start, well, things might have turned out differently."

He paused.

"I tried to give you a good life. I'll say it again, I'm not a man of emotions- I'm a man of credits. Anything you wanted I supplied it."

Palpatine tried to interrupt, but Cosinga raised a hand, silencing him.

"I'm surprised that worked. Maybe you have learned something after all this time." He sniffed. "Son, I don't know what this Muun has in store for you here- I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now- but obviously there is something going on that is much greater than any quarrel we once had."

"Father… what are you trying to say?"

Palpatine watched as the tiniest of smiles appeared in the corner of Cosinga's mouth.

"In short, I wish you the best."

As his father's words sunk in a hard lump welled in his throat. Never could he have foreseen this. Why now, why like this, and… why did he _care_?

"Father, I-" Palpatine began but stopped when he saw the blood dripping from his father's mouth.

His eyes traveled down to Cosinga's chest, where a rose of crimson was starting to blossom, devouring his tunic at a rapid pace. The young Palpatine looked up to see that Plagueis was now standing behind his father, fist buried deep inside his flesh. The two locked eyes, then there was a snap, a crunch, and then Cosinga attempted at speech gurgling more blood before sliding to the ground with a sickening squish as Plagueis withdrew his hand from his body.

The Muun stepped forward; Cosinga Palpatine's freshly plucked heart in his hand.

"Have you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane," he asked, kicking the body out of the way.

Palpatine touched his face and discovered it was wet. Had he been crying? He couldn't recall ever having done so before…

His thoughts were interrupted by Plagueis's short laugh. "Petty human emotions. Well, no matter, I suppose that's what we're here for in the first place."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Your appearance of humanity was precisely why I picked you as my apprentice to begin with, Sidious- if you are even still deserving of that title. It was what gave you what you needed to rise to power as senator, chancellor, and, finally, emperor. Imagine what you could have done if it wasn't just an act." The Muun smiled; an odd feature on such a placid face. "What _if_ you loved your family after all?"

_Did I? _Do_ I? _

He had never given it much thought. What would if mean if he did? Would that make him a monster?

Palpatine had never considered himself a monster. Not really. He believed he was doing some greater good, governing those that were either too incompetent or too lazy to do so themselves. His world was a better world… monsters could not accomplish greatness.

What would it mean if he was?

Would he even care?

_We're all animals, after all._

"_King of the beasts, Father." _He remembered himself saying.

Maybe it was true.

When he looked back up, Plagueis was standing over him, his father's heart held to his lips. Do you remember what I told you that night on Kursid, my apprentice?"

Palpatine was silent.

"We're not living in an age of giants, Sidious. But to succeed we must become as beasts." Palpatine watched as Plagueis took a bite from his father's heart before placing it in his own hands. "Are you grand enough?"

He could hear his mother banging on the door, screaming as she did before. The scene would play again he knew; the night of the massacre. And he also knew that the scene would continue to play until he gained control. Until all doubts were erased. Until the Force returned to him his power. Then his training could begin anew. Then he could live again.

"Shouldn't you be asking, if I am crude enough," Palpatine said, taking his father's heart between his teeth-

-and began to feed.

***x*X*x*X*x* **

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**So, to clear up some obvious details:**

**The Emperor's dialogue at the beginning of this piece is from the film **_**Return of the Jedi**_**.  
Plagueis's dialogue when Palpatine arrives on the afterworld version of Mygeeto comes from the novel **_**Darth Plagueis**_**- as is part of Palpatine's little rank in response to his unwanted Déjà vu moment, the dialogue in reference to the feeding of the heart, as well as the like "King of the beasts, father." I'd give more contexts, but I don't wish to spoil the book for those who haven't read it. (And if you haven't DO IT!) **

This idea has been bothering me for a long time and I just had to spit it out.  
I hope you enjoyed yourself, even if just for a little bit!  
**This is the story I alluded to at the end of "Power Play", for those curious faithful readers of mine (Of which I love).**  
As always, feel free to REVIEW- It really does help to keep me going xD  
May the Force be with you...


End file.
